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Burkina Electric mixes the contemporary and ancient

By Steven Horowitz

Most Eastern Iowans probably couldn’t find Burkina Faso on a map of Africa, nor could they identify the indigenous music of the country. But that’s nothing to be ashamed of, says Lukas Ligeti, cofounder of the group Burkina Electric. Most West Africans have the same limited level of knowledge of the Hawkeye State as we do about them.

Talking over the phone from New York City while on tour, Ligeti points out that Iowa and Burkina Faso share several things in common. They both are in landlocked areas away from the sea. Both are off the beaten track. And both have rich heritages.

Ligeti confesses to know little about Iowa. His band’s visit to CSPS on Saturday, April 5, will be the first time he will perform and stay here. Still, he’s anxious to see Iowa and looks forward to learning more about us and teaching us about the music of another place.

Ligeti’s not a folk musician and his band does not play traditional music. His group is an experimental, avant-garde combo that combines elements of electronica and Burkina Faso culture.

“The music from the area is as varied as the speech, and there are more than 60 different languages spoken in Burkina Faso,” Ligeti says. He didn’t want to generalize, but noted that all the music is polyrhythmic and has more than one set of beats going on at the same time, and that it is largely pentatonic, containing five notes within an octave.

Ligeti studied classical composition in his hometown of Vienna before embarking to Africa. “I was always interested in computers and computer music,” he says. “During my last year at the conservatory, I had the opportunity to go the Ivory Coast. I arrived with all my gear. I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought I would turn on Africa to electronic music.

“Instead, I met amazing musicians and formed a band. It was a wonderful, life changing experience,” Ligeti says. He still remembers his first gig with those musicians back in 1999; they formed a band called Beta Foly.

Four of them are still with him in his new band, started in 2004, called Burkina Electric. This includes the German musician Pyrolator, whom he first bumped into in Africa. The other three artists were from Burkina Faso, but because of politics and funding were then living in the Ivory Coast.

Burkino Electric consists of six artists, two of whom are dancers. The shows are choreographed and the drummer and singer also dance while performing. Ligeti considers the visual element of the music essential to the art.

“I’ve always thought it boring to watch people play laptops on stage,” Ligeti says. The band projects creative images on a screen while on stage as well.

Ligeti plays an instrument developed for him by the California synthesizer maven Don Buchla called a Marimba Lumina. “It’s a strange piece of hardware that makes African sounds and much, much more,” Ligeti says.

Pyrolator plays an instrument made by the same person called Lightning Sticks, which Ligeti calls “a cross between drum sticks and a pair of magic wands.” Other band members play drums made out of gourds and a guitar.

“There is a strong relationship between electronic and traditional electronic art forms. Both are based on small, granular, digital units,” Ligeti says. “The point is to try to do something new in music. New technology offers new solutions to musical problems.”

He believes Burkino Electric’s mix of the contemporary and the ancient is the best answer to making a world of good music.